Republicans set for blame game

Michael Abramowitz, Washington

FOR the first time in 16 years, Republicans woke this morning shut out on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, and party leaders are already girding for the recriminations.

"The next couple of months will be a very ugly period in the Republican Party," said Fergus Cullen, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican party. "There will be finger pointing and blame."

Theories of what went wrong this year are varied and often contradictory. Some say the party embraced conservatism too tightly, while others say the party has not been conservative enough. One popular argument among Republican partisans is that the party strayed from its principles of limited government; another is that it has lost its appeal to suburban voters over social issues and the environment. Many say Republicans could not escape the shadow of Iraq and George Bush, the least popular Republican chief executive since Richard Nixon.

At least one thing seemed clear after the electoral drubbing the Republicans suffered yesterday: they will soon find themselves in an intense debate over the direction of a party that has no obvious leader and no clear path back to power.

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"It's amazing how a butt-kicking can help clear people's heads," said Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, who received serious consideration to be Senator McCain's running mate. "The Republican idea factory has gotten stale."

Not since 1980 has a lower percentage of the electorate described itself as Republican. Ominously, Senator McCain was crushed among young voters and Hispanics, the fast-growing minority.

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Utah's Republican Governor, Jon Huntsman, predicted a "broad discussion of the future of the party" with virtually every big issue on the table.

"Was there anything that went right for us over the last several years?" he asked, saying that the party's international agenda had been "flawed" and US prestige abroad "squandered". "We have been totally tone-deaf in terms of recognising the environment and where most Americans are in terms of having a healthy environment," he said

Virginia Republican Eric Cantor, also often mentioned as a possible party leader, said: "There is a challenge for us to reconnect to people, to show that our policies are what the middle class really cares about."